A baby was delivered on an international flight by a Cleveland Clinic urologist who sprang into action when the woman sitting next to him went into labor part way between Paris and New York City.
It seemed like fate that Dr. Sij Hemal and 41-year-old Toyin Ogundipe, who resides in both the U.K. and Nigeria, were on the same flight, CBS News reported.
Coincidently, the second-year urology resident at Cleveland Clinic's Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute also happened to be sharing an aisle seat with a French pediatrician, so when Ogundipe went into labor while the plane was passing the southern coast of Greenland, and unable to make an emergency landing, she was well attended..
“Her contractions were about 10 minutes apart, so the pediatrician (Dr. Susan Shepherd, of Senlis, France) and I began to monitor her vital signs and keep her comfortable,” said Hemal.
Ogundipe was moved to the roomier first-class section of the plane, where her contractions rapidly accelerated.
“They occurred seven, then five and finally two minutes apart. …That’s when we knew we were going to deliver on the plane,” Hemal said.
The urologist had previously delivered seven babies but all were during medical school, not on a plane.
His training kicked in and he was able to stay calm, and in turn keep Ogundipe calm, while she gave birth to a baby boy.
"Honestly, it was something from God," Hemal said of the delivery, per CNN. "A lot of things could have gone wrong. But we made the best with what we had."
Despite all the excitement, Hemal was still able to make his connecting flight on time and got home to Cleveland on a much less eventful journey.
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